[Strawbale] Natural, inexpensive kitchen cabinets

[billc]

At 8:41 PM -0700 5/12/07, Andrew Lund wrote:
>This might be considered a little off-topic, but there seems to be a 
>lot of natural minded people on this list that may understand my 
>dilemma...
>
>We are in the finishing stages of our very natural home and are 
>looking into our kitchen counter options. We are building on a 
>shoe-string budget, and have steered clear of toxic materials such 
>as chipboard and other off-gasing substances as much as possible up 
>to this point. I'm really struggling to come up with an inexpensive 
>alternative to  conventional cabinets and counters, though... The 
>only green options I have found (such as wheatboard), are certainly 
>not cheap... I've wondered if we could salvage some old cabinets 
>cheaply and reface them, but odds are we'd never be able to piece 
>our whole kitchen together...
>
>So, any ideas? What do poor, natural-mined people do in our situation? :-)

That's a tricky question which has so far eluded me as well. 
Countertops especially.  We're still in the stage of getting the 
financial ducks lined up (finally own the lot outright, yaaay)  and 
the layout figured out, so we haven't *had* to make the decisions yet.

For one thing, you might consider whether you really *need* the upper 
cabinets that are so common in homes that they're often considered 
mandatory without even considering other posibilities.  Simple 
shelving may work just as well - at least for a while.  (that "while" 
may last a long time if you're waiting for time/money to "finally put 
in cabinets", so do a decent job of the shelving at least).  It's 
worked well for some of our friends, and guests no longer have to 
hunt for a glass or a plate.

In the same vein, you may be able to get away with open shelving  - 
possibly covered with cloth - for the lower cabinets.  I've seen it 
done by several less-than-financially-affluent folks.  There are of 
course some reasons to have doors which will close, but if y'all are 
indeed as non-toxic as you seem, there probably won't be much down 
there that a kid or pet could ingest that would really hurt them 
much. Though that doesn't mean they couldn't do harm to what they 
find there.

By old cabinets, I hope you mean really old, like from when they were 
made from actual wood.  Skip on the particle board and other junk 
that have typically been increasingly used over the last several 
decades if you can.  If you have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore or 
other used building materials place nearby you might - with much 
shopping around - be able to find enough pieces to make a full 
kitchen, especially if you live in an older city.  Or you might walk 
in on the right day and find exactly what you want at a good price. 
You never know with those places - you just have to keep going in and 
looking to see what's available.  Sounds like time is not on your 
side here.

Countertops are the real sticking point though.  You want them to be 
durable, inexpensive, cleanable, stain resistant, and hopefully good 
looking.  Oh, and functional too.

Some people like tile, but if you go that route I'd suggest using 
large tiles to minimize the grout lines, which can be a pain to keep 
really clean.  Probably use a dark grout too, to hide the inevitable 
stains.  The tile should be of the stainproof variety too or it'll 
really show the use.

Or go with a poured in place concrete counter top.  Sealing it is the 
tricky part here i'd think, but they've been done and there are 
instructions around on how to do it. I personally have't seen any 
that have made me want to tell my wife "we gotta do this!", but maybe 
that's just me or the ones I've seen to date.

If you can handle the industrial kitchen look, you might find some 
used stainless steel counters at a local kitchen equipment supplier 
or a salvage/demolition place.

Hope that helps a little.

-- 
Bill Christensen
<http://greenbuilder.com/contact/>

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